The innovation of enamels and enamel painting techniques on porcelain during the 1720s marked the establishment of a new type of porcelain product which soon played a significant role in Chinese porcelain consumption, both domestically and globally. Yet, the impact of this innovation on production and consumption has rarely been studied. This thesis addresses this gap by offering a historical perspective on eighteenth century Chinese enamelled porcelain, its production and consumption, both in domestic and export markets. It is demonstrated that both the Qing court and the local manufactures responded actively to new technological developments. Following the discussion on how the court and local manufactures interacted and the technology was transferred, my thesis continues to demonstrate the impact of technological innovation on the domestic and export markets. It has shown in domestic market, enamelled porcelain was not only consumed by the imperial court, as current scholarship assumed, rather it had reached a wider set of consumers. In terms of export porcelain trade, my detailed examinations and analyses of the English East India Company Records demonstrate that enamelled porcelain played significant roles over different periods. Overall, this research contributes to knowledge about enamelled porcelain consumption in eighteenth-century China and beyond, and also sheds light on the study of Chinese porcelain and the Chinese porcelain trade. The discussion on the enamelled porcelain trade between China and the English East India Company during the eighteenth century provides a detailed insight into how the Chinese porcelain trade developed and changed over time.

This study is built around two core questions. Firstly, what constitutes the formation of Kurdish identity in the Kurdistan Region-Iraq (KRI)? Secondly, what have the inner dynamics of this process been since 1991? Two major theoretical approaches are used to address these questions, namely ethno-symbolism and political discourse theory (PDT). These theories are utilised to approach the research questions on two levels: the cultural-historical and the political; and result in four major findings regarding the inner dynamics of collective identity formation in the KRI. Firstly, it is found that actors active in the process of collective identity formation are primarily nationalist political parties and intellectuals. Secondly, that Kurdish identity in the region forms around ‘Kurdish’ ethnic, cultural and historical features. Thirdly, that a large set of cultural and historical tools have been utilised to produce Kurdish identity in the KRI. Fourthly, that different forms of Kurdish identity have been produced in the KRI, meaning that Kurdishness in the region is split, fragmented, relational and crisis-ridden. This study also argues that the process of Kurdish identity formation in the KRI from 1991 to 2014 can be divided into three II historic phases. The first of these stretched from 1991 to 2003 and saw the ambiguous development of a traditional Kurdish ethno-nationalist identity; the second lasted from 2003 to 2009 and saw the development of an ambiguous Kurdish nationalist identity; whilst the third stretches from 2009 to the present and has seen Kurdish identity acquire a civic character in response to newly emerged political, social and economic conditions in the KRI. The study also combines the theoretical and methodological approaches of ethno-symbolism’s culturist approach and PDT’s social constructionism in order to develop an approach suitable for studying the complexities of Kurdish identity formation in the KRI. The resulting argument is that whilst Kurdish cultural and historical features play an essential role in producing the Kurdish identity in the KRI, this identity is produced in the discursive realm by competing social and political actors, each of which seeks to hegemonise their own particular form of Kurdish identity.

2011 became a year of revolt for the Middle East and north Africa as a series of popular uprisings toppled veteran strongmen that had ruled the regions for decades. The contentious mobilisations not only repudiated orthodox explanations for the resilience of Arab autocracy, but radically asserted the 'political imaginary' of a sovereign and united citizenry, so vigorously encapsulated in the popular slogan al-shab yurid isqat al-nizam (the people want to overthrow the system). In the Republic of Yemen, revolting citizens precipitated the resignation of perennial President Ali Abd Allah Salih and demanded a fundamental reconfiguration of the prevailing social contract into a modern civil state (al-dawla al-madaniya al-haditha). It is tempting to situate the root causes of these historic citizen revolts in the political inertia and moral bankruptcy of (neo)patrimonial Arab autocracies, their neoliberal economic policies, unemployment and social inequality, a youth bulge or new media technologies - all of which doubtlessly constituted crucial enabling factors. For the historian, however, the story runs much deeper than such 'presentist' interpretations suggest. Adopting a dynamic, process-orientated approach, this doctoral dissertation examines why and how the revolutionary mobilisation in 2011 transpired in relation to Yemen's history of contentious politics. The narrative is built around the argument that the revolt was the result of three parallel, dynamic processes: the erratic and limited liberalisation process since Yemeni unification in 1990, the 'oligarchisation' of power sine the 1994 war, and the 'politics of calculated chaos' - a paradoxical propensity of the Salih regime to foster disorder and dissent in order to position itself as the defender of the republicanism and Yemeni unity. When regime changes in North Africa precipitated a shift in political opportunities, these processes culminated in the formation of a loose, temporary and heterogeneous opposition coalition that mounted a singular contentious challenge against the regime. Traditional powerbrokers, however, soon stifled the brief revolutionary moment as they politicised, co-opted and superseded the citizen movement. Loosely inspired by the histoire de la long duree, the thesis contextualises the emergence and trajectory of the Yemeni citizen revolt in the political economy imperatives, deep-seated regional divisions and collective memories of past regimes and revolutions, such as the pre-Islamic South Arabian kingdomes, the millennial Zaydi Imamates or the twin revolutions of the 1960s. It thereby revels some striking historical parallels to earlier episodes of contention in terms of longstanding demands, ideas and repertoires, which continue to constitute frameworks of reference for contemporary contentious politics.

This research focuses on the question why the East Timorese in exile after 1999 are suffering in silence. Today, many of them still live in temporary camps for more than a decade after East Timor referendum. Using Foucaultian approach in investigating the long period of history of the construction of the people in camps, and also the concept of reflexive sociology this research tries to explain the construction of victims within the trend of transitional justice in post Cold War period. The victims of structural violence are rarely recognised within the liberal human rights campaign. Following Arendt’s idea that the camp is the place where human rights and citizen right are not recognized, this research finds that Agamben’s argument that the making of camp itself is not separated from the juridical and disciplinary power is valid. Using historical narratives in three different settings Netherlands East Indies/Indonesia, Portugal, Portuguese Timor/Provinsi Timor Timor/East Timor this thesis explains the process of exclusion of different communities in different periods in particular those who are victims of modern state and also cosmopolitan solidarity in camps.

In this thesis, a novel transmission structure is proposed for the Direct Sequence Ultra Wide-Band (DS-UWB) systems. The main purpose of the proposed structure is to eliminate the inter-symbol interference caused by the multi-path environment. In DS-UWB systems, shortening the guard interval is one of the possible ways to achieve higher data rates. However, interference will increase inversely with the length of the guard interval because the signal delay spread caused by the multi-path effect will induce inter-symbol interference. In this thesis, a novel transmission structure that utilizes the autocorrelation properties of the perfect sequence is proposed for interference cancellation in DS-UWB systems. Both computer simulation and mathematical analysis are provided for performance evaluation.

This work presents the application of the theory and algorithms of Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to blind multiuser symbol estimation in downlink of Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) communication system. The main focus is on blind separation of convolved CDMA mixture and the improvement of the downlink symbol estimation. Term blind implies that the separation is performed based upon the observation only. Since the knowledge of system parameter is available only in the downlink environment, the blind multiuser detection algorithm is an attractive option in the downlink.<p>Firstly, the basic principles of ICA are introduced. The objective function and optimization algorithm of ICA are discussed. A typical ICA method, one of the benchmark methods for ICA, FastICA, is considered in details. Another typical ICA algorithm, InfoMAX, is introduced as well, followed by numerical experiment to evaluate two ICA algorithms.<p>Secondly, FastICA is proposed for blind multiuser symbol estimation as the statistical independence condition of the source signals is always met. The system model of simulation in downlink of DS-CDMA system is discussed and then an ICA based DS-CDMA downlink detector has been implemented with MATLAB. A comparison between the conventional Single User Detection (SUD) receiver and ICA detector has been made and the simulation results are analyzed as well. The results show that ICA detector is capable of blindly solving multiuser symbol estimation problem in downlink of DS-CDMA system.<p>The convergence of ICA algorithm is, then, discussed to obtain more stable simulation results. A joint detector, which combines ICA and SUD and where ICA is considered as an additional element attached to SUD detector, has been implemented. It was demonstrated that the joint detector gives the lowest error probability compared to conventional SUD receiver and pure ICA detector with training sequences.

This work presents the application of the theory and algorithms of Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to blind multiuser symbol estimation in downlink of Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) communication system. The main focus is on blind separation of convolved CDMA mixture and the improvement of the downlink symbol estimation. Term blind implies that the separation is performed based upon the observation only. Since the knowledge of system parameter is available only in the downlink environment, the blind multiuser detection algorithm is an attractive option in the downlink.<p>Firstly, the basic principles of ICA are introduced. The objective function and optimization algorithm of ICA are discussed. A typical ICA method, one of the benchmark methods for ICA, FastICA, is considered in details. Another typical ICA algorithm, InfoMAX, is introduced as well, followed by numerical experiment to evaluate two ICA algorithms.<p>Secondly, FastICA is proposed for blind multiuser symbol estimation as the statistical independence condition of the source signals is always met. The system model of simulation in downlink of DS-CDMA system is discussed and then an ICA based DS-CDMA downlink detector has been implemented with MATLAB. A comparison between the conventional Single User Detection (SUD) receiver and ICA detector has been made and the simulation results are analyzed as well. The results show that ICA detector is capable of blindly solving multiuser symbol estimation problem in downlink of DS-CDMA system.<p>The convergence of ICA algorithm is, then, discussed to obtain more stable simulation results. A joint detector, which combines ICA and SUD and where ICA is considered as an additional element attached to SUD detector, has been implemented. It was demonstrated that the joint detector gives the lowest error probability compared to conventional SUD receiver and pure ICA detector with training sequences.

PN code synchronization is a common and essential task at the receiver in CDMA communication systems. In most literatures, there usually exists assumption of synchronization between the received spreading sequence and a locally generated replica. Few practical and detail synchronization schemes are showed in literatures. Moreover, there are no sufficient knowledge about operation characteristics of loop elements and operation strategies. Hence, in this thesis we propose some schemes about PN code synchronization and then do some analysis to compare performance of those schemes in AWGN channel. Code synchronization at DSSS receivers is performed in two steps. One is code acquisition and the other is code tracking. In acquisition process, we propose so called some ¡§auxiliary decision criterions¡¨ in multiple-dwell detection strategies. Analytical results are validated with computer simulations. By use of auxiliary decision criterions, the acquisition process is outperforms the conventional multiple-dwell and single-dwell detection strategies in AWGN channel. In code tracking process, we use coherent DLL. Loop filter parameters are tuned by observing phase-plane trajectories to acquire stable lock points and convergence property. In addition, we proposed a coherent DLL chip implementation, and accomplish the design flow that includes verification, synthesis, place and route, and simulation.

This dissertation examines the international history of the Gulf region during the period from 1958 to 1979. It begins with the fall of the Iraqi monarchy and ends with the fall of the Shah of Iran. Particular attention is paid throughout to the establishment of the new Gulf states and their emergence into `modernity'. In Chapter I we deal with the historical background of the Gulf states, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Besides the historical background we also deal with recent social, economic and political developments within all of these states. Special attention has been paid to the culture, religion and society of our subjects since these factors play a major role in the domestic and external decision-making. Faysal of Saudi Arabia, for example, formed his policies according to his strong Islamic beliefs. In Chapter II we deal with the conflicts and disputes among our subjects. Disputes over whole territory, as in the case of the Iraqi claim over Kuwait and the Iranian claim over Bahrain or disputes over islands which one state believes to be part of its national territory but which claim is disputed - the Iranian claim to the two Tunbs and Abu Musa or the Bahraini claim to Zubara, for example, or disputed claims by several parties - in the case of the Buraimi Oasis between Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Oman. These claims became important as a result of the oil discoveries in our region and the establishment of new states deepened some of these conflicts. There have also been important strategic considerations at stake - for example, with regard to the Iraqi claims to the two Kuwaiti islands of Warba and Bubiyan. In Chapter III we look at the involvement of the superpowers in the region. Particular attention is given to the relationships between the United States and Iran and between the United States and Saudi Arabia on the one hand and that between the Soviet Union and Iraq on the other. Attention has inevitably focussed upon military rivalry and the development of armed forces. In the subsequent chapters the emphasis changes. We deal with the region as a whole and look at events as they involve all the countries concerned. These chapters cover the entire period from 1958 to 1979 on a daily basis by watching its politically dynamic developments, starting with the fall of the Iraqi monarchy and the emergence of the revolutionary regime in its place and ending with the downfall of the Shah of Iran in 1979. That has entailed consideration of the fate of the Iraqi revolution and the emergence and fragile independence of Kuwait. Another significant landmark is the British announcement in 1968 of their determination to bring their long-established role in the region to an end three years later. That in turn leads to a consideration of the politics of the establishment of the United Arab Emirates and also of the international aspects of the Omani question. The final chapters consider the `Algiers Accord' between Iran and Iraq and the dispute over the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Considerable note is taken of the Kurdish revolt in its various phases. The thesis comes to an end by describing the downfall of the Shah and the international evaluation of its significance.

This thesis examines the effects of 'Historical Globalization' on Sylhet and its people from 1874 to 1971. The aim of the thesis is to show two intersecting worlds within which the people of Sylhet lived their lives. At the local level they have responded to the introduction of the capitalist tea plantation. At the global level they established a 'diaspora' and social networks that maintained contact with the homeland. The dissertation considers the reshaping of Sylhet and its role as buffer zone between Assam and Bengal - the biggest province of British India. Thus it looks at Sylhet's place as the producer of global commodity tea - interfacing capital and labour that left long-term impact. It explores how local people itself becoming global for seeking economic fortune. The dissertation further examines identity politics from 1870s to 1971 as these events shaped political mobilizations at home and abroad that ended up the creation of Bangladesh. The study begins in 1874, when Assam Province was created taking Sylhet from Bengal and ends in 1971, when Bangladesh emerged where Sylhetis played a key role at home and across the globe. The chapter one traces the distinctive nature of Sylhet as a frontier, a meeting point of cultures even before the opening of Sylhet for tea capitalism. Chapter two examines the local and overseas entrepreneurs involved in the development of the plantation. Chapter three focuses on the phenomenon of labour migration within the South Asian context created by the plantation, the recruitment of tea labourers from other regions up to 1000 kilometres away, some affected by famine and a sharp termination of the contacts with their homeland following the partition in 1947. Chapter four explores mobility of labour created by the merchant marine, drawing in Sylheti seafarers with a tradition of migration and involvement in water transport and taking them across the globe. It considers the impact of 1947 partition, cutting off Sylhetis from Calcutta and ships - out migration not only continues but become torrent. Chapter five goes on to examine social improvement through communication, education and public health. Chapter six looks at the political mobilization in Sylhet, the reaction of the Hindu elites to the prospect of decolonization and the displacement of this elite following partition in 1947 and trans-national network of Diaspora nationalism. The Sylhet referendum in 1947 emerged as a watershed needs emphasising more strongly as a structuring element in the overall study.